Emily Jane White’s melancholy and dusty Americana is an unexpected surprise on a label that is better known for being home to acts like Merzbow and Acid Mothers Temple, but it was easy to see why Important Records wanted to put this out once I heard it. Dark Undercoat is an often powerful and mesmerizing debut.
This album has actually been out for a while, but was just reissued several months ago (with a bonus track). It is hard to see how I managed to miss it the first time around: this is one of those rare underground albums that has such immediate, broad appeal that even Spin and Rolling Stone liked it, yet White seamlessly appeared alongside Current 93 and Six Organs of Admittance on Cam Archer’s Wild Tigers I have Known soundtrack. As such, Dark Undercoat went out of print remarkably fast. I’m glad it is back.
It is hard to avoid mentioning Cat Power when discussing White’s music, as that is the most obvious touchstone and seems to wind up in every review (PJ Harvey and Hope Sandoval make occasional appearances as well). I suspect it is laregely due to the fact that White is both husky-voiced and quite melancholy, but it nevertheless alludes to her primary flaw, which is the fact that she does not yet have her own completely distinctive voice. However, I am not an especially big Cat Power fan, yet I like this. I think that might be because Emily seems to channel a heavy influence from Southern Gothic literature by folks like Flannery O’Connor and Carson McCullers as well. Dark Undercoat evokes lonely country roads, decaying Americana, crumbling houses, and heartbreak in a way that is uniquely her own, despite any superficial similarities with other singer-songwriters.
There is a lot of material on this album that, while competent, doesn’t move me at all (particularly the piano songs). However, the handful of songs that I do like are all rather achingly beautiful. The bittersweet and languorous “Dagger” accompanies White's world-weary vocals with hauntingly chiming arpeggios, while the heartbroken resignation of title track is darkly captivating. Notably, aside from the aforementioned “Dagger,” White and her backing band wisely avoid using much electric instrumentation, giving the songs a timeless and understated feel that nicely accentuates her powerful vocals and literate lyrics. The album’s original closer (“Two Shots to the Head”) is a particularly stunning track that displays this nicely, as the sparse instrumentation places the focus squarely the slow-burning intensity of White’s throaty, downcast narrative.
Actually, on a related note, I suppose I have one other minor grievance, which is that Dark Undercoat is pretty uniformly bleak in tone. Obviously, White is damn good at bleakness, but a few more lively moments like “Hole in the Middle” or the bluesy shuffle of “Bessie Smith” would have been welcome breaks in the unrelenting darkness (comparatively, anyway- they are still far from cheery). That said, this album shows an enormous amount of promise and Emily is already a better songwriter than some of her influences. Dark Undercoat’s follow-up (Victorian America) is already out in Europe and I am looking forward to hearing how she has evolved in the last year or so. Based on the title, I don’t think I need to worry about any change in her aesthetic.
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